19th sanctions package against Russia incoming, Kallas: “Adoption as early as this week”

Brussels – The 19th package of sanctions against Russia could be adopted by the EU within a few days. That, at least, is the hope of High Representative Kaja Kallas, who chaired the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg today (20 October). The war in Ukraine was one of the main topics on the table of the ministers, who seemed close to a final agreement on yet another round of restrictive measures. 

The date circled in red on the calendar is 23 October, when the heads of state and government of the Twenty-Seven
will meet in Brussels for the European Council convened by António Costa. “We expect the 19th sanctions package to be adopted this week,” said the head of EU diplomacy as she arrived in Luxembourg, explicitly pointing to the leaders’ meeting as the moment of possible approval by the chancelleries. At the end of today’s meeting, Kallas even suggested to already start working on the 20th package. 

Meanwhile, with the 19th (packaged last month by the Commission), the Federation’s banks and cryptocurrency platforms, the proceeds of fossil fuel exports, and networks involved in the circumvention of existing sanctions, both in Russia and in other countries, are put in the crosshairs. The list of vessels belonging to the so-called shadow fleet of the Kremlin is further lengthened with the inclusion of 118 new vessels.

At the same time, the EU would be working on a more aggressive approach towards these ghost sailers. The idea would be to allow member states to carry out searches and other operations on the ships, from which, according to Kallas, some of the hybrid attacks on the Old Continent would also originate, especially at the level of drone launches and jamming of radio and gps frequencies. Also resorting to the twelve-star civil and military maritime missions, such as Aspides, and appointing a “special coordinator“ in charge of “gathering best practices” from the member states, the former Estonian premier explained. 

On the one hand, a series of supplementary measures to the international law of the sea enshrined in the 1982 Montego Bay Convention (UNCLOS) would be put in place to close the regulatory loopholes that prevent effective action against this type of piracy. On the other hand, Brussels would like to sign a series of agreements with the flag states of the vessels themselves (which are often not Russian), establishing a series of commitments and obligations on the part of the vessel owners. 

In addition, third-country traders and refineries (mainly Chinese) will also be affected, and transactions with Russian energy giants such as Rosneft and Gazpromneft will become impossible. The new restrictions also include a total ban on the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Moscow: it was already scheduled for January 2027, but would thus be brought forward by more than a year. Finally, 45 companies—Russian and non-Russian—accused of supplying the aggressor country with dual-use goods were identified.

Among the reasons why Kallas is optimistic about the imminent approval of the package is the withdrawal of the Austrian veto on the new restrictive measures. For weeks, Vienna had blocked the sanctions by demanding compensation for the Austrian Raiffeisen bank in connection with losses due to Russian countermeasures. According to diplomatic sources, only the Slovakia of Robert Fico (recently excluded from the European Socialist family) would still oppose the new package. It is expected that Ursula von der Leyen will personally take action to defuse the obstructionism in Bratislava, as
already happened in the past. 

At the same time, work on the use of the frozen Russian assets, worth around €175 billion, is proceeding slowly. According to Kallas, there is “strong support” from member states, but “the legal and fiscal modalities” of the matter, which continues to prove itself particularly thorny, still need to be defined. Finally, the High Representative attests that 25 chancelleries have pledged to become part of the Special Tribunal for Crimes of Aggression of Russia against Ukraine: “First we need an estimate of the costs, then we can proceed,” she concludes, announcing a preliminary allocation of 10 million.